"Around the same time that Gerbert flourished in fantastical good fortune, a young man from Constantinople was a shoemaker for the people, exceeding all masters of that art with his novel and singular innovations. He would work in one day more than anyone else would in two, and in each case his haste was more elegant than the steady craft of the masters. Indeed, having seen any bare foot, crooked or straight, he would immediately adorn it with a most fitting shoe. And he would not even work for someone unless he had seen their foot.
Consequently, he was welcomed by the well-born and could make himself unavailable to the poor. Also, in all the spectacles of the arena, such as throwing and wrestling and similar trials of vigor, he was accustomed to win renown, and was spoken of and admired far and wide. And so one day, a most beautiful woman with her large escort came to the window and displayed her bare foot, so that it might be furnished with a shoe. The wretch looked upon and regarded it carefully and then, having made and sold her the shoes, began (from her feet) to take all of her into his heart; he drank from her an evil pestilence which utterly ruined him. As a slave he sought royal pleasures but could not approach that which he hoped for. So he relinquished his belongings and sold his estate and became a knight, so that he might at this late stage change his base condition for a noble one and somewhat ease his rejection, at least. Before he presumed to speak to his beloved, for whom he took up the harsh pursuit of warfare, he served with regular victory through his training and was by comparison as fitting a soldier as he had been a shoemaker. Therefore he made the attempt, and though deeming himself worthy, he did not obtain the girl he sought from her father. He kindled in an excessive rage, and desiring in his failure to seize her whom his low birth and estate denied him, he joined a large group of pirates and prepared to avenge his rejection on land through conflict upon the sea.
From this, it was the case that both land and sea were terrified; on no occasion whatsoever did victories elude him. And so, while he proceeded violently and always profited, he heard a truthful rumor about the death of his beloved. He, grief-stricken, allowed a welcome armistice and hastened to her funeral. Having seen her burial place and taken note of the place, he dug out her grave the next night and advanced upon the dead woman as if she was a living woman. That wickedness perpetrated, rising from the dead woman he heard that he should return there at the time of birth and take that which he had engendered. He obeyed what he heard, returned when the conjunction was reached, and having excavated the tomb, took from the dead woman a human head. This was under a prohibition not to be seen, unless by an enemy who was to be destroyed thereby. He deposited that head in a very tightly sealed chest. Confident in this, he abandoned the sea, invaded the land, and whenever he came near a city or village, he held forth the exposed Gorgon. The wretches stiffened, seeing the Medusa-like evil. He was feared beyond measure and accepted by all as their lord, in order that they might not perish. No one understood the cause of this affliction and sudden death; indeed, as soon as they beheld it, they perished, without voice and without a groan. Even armed men in their defenses died without a wound. They yielded their forts, cities, and provinces; none withstood, and all knighthood suffered to be plundered without effort or engagement. Some called him an astrologer, others a god; whatever he sought, they refused him nothing.
Among his successes they tally one: that the emperor of Constantinople, having died, relinquished his daughter and heir to him. He accepted the offer; who, indeed, would not? For some time she was with him, and she pondered over the reason for the chest that was set in that place, and would not rest unless she knew the truth. When she was informed, having roused him from sleep, she held out the head in his face. And so he was caught in his own ambush. She ordered that the Medusan prodigy be carried away and thrown into the middle of the Greek sea, the avenger of all his wickedness, and that the author of the wrongdoing was to partake in its destruction. The couriers hastened in a galley and, coming upon the middle of the sea, hurled the two monstrosities of the world into the abyss..."
Walter Map, De nugis curialium, XIIth c.
